[Changes in the perception of benefits and risks of antidepressive pharmacotherapy]

Antidepressive pharmacotherapy has undergone various phases in its history. The euphoria of the early years on the relief of depressive symptoms was followed by a long period of clinical experience and intensive scientific work resulting in a more balanced perspective. Current debates circle around the actual effectiveness, especially with respect to long-term treatment, the prevention of suicide and the sequelae of discontinuation of an antidepressant. The evaluation of antidepressants as a group and often also the risk-benefit ratio of an individual treatment change over time. Antidepressants are typical for many forms of psychiatric treatment which, in a term from Hanfried Helmchen, are just as Janus-faced as psychiatry in a general sense is as a science and as a clinical discipline.